Every week we shower and wash and dry clothing. Although the electricity used in washing and drying clothing may seem like potentially minimal savings for a single person, the larger your family gets, the more these ideas make sense. Try these three projects to reduce your laundry costs—install bathroom hooks instead of towel bars, install a closet clothing bar in your laundry room, install an under deck clothes line, and recycle your dryer lint. In addition to improving our natural world, you will find additional benefits.

Install Eco-Friendly Bathroom Hooks instead of Towel Bars [see photograph 1]

Bathroom hooks are easily purchased from any hardware store and maybe your best environmentally green purchase you ever make. They install the same way as a towel bar, but are much more efficient in their use of space. Instead of having one towel hanging to dry, you can potentially have 8 towels hanging in the same space. This allows you to dry your towel, hang your robe, and dry your swimsuit all in the same space. A towel hanging to dry will prevent mildew growth and allow you to use it more than once before washing—an eco-friendly trick that is highly recommended. Additionally, in wintertime, the towels will be warmed for your use if they hang over a heat vent without the added cost of an electric towel bar.

Install Eco-Friendly Closet Clothing Bar in Your Laundry [see photograph 2]

A closet clothing bar helps reduce your drying time by allowing you to pull clothing from the dryer and hang it on a hanger. Two plastic end pieces install on opposing walls, and the bar fits easily into the curved holders. This allows you to hang heavier, slightly damp clothing when the lighter clothing is dried. The closet hanging bar can be an eco-friendly addition to your household because it helps prevent wrinkles and reduces reheat time to help eliminate those wrinkles. Instead of drying delicate care items like lingerie, pull them from the washer and hang them to dry the green natural way because it will help extend the life of those expensive clothing items.

Install Eco-Friendly Under Deck Clothes Line [see photograph 3]

During summer warm weather, you can save much of your drying costs by hanging a simple eco-friendly clothesline under your deck. Simply wrap heavy ¼ inch nylon rope around the deck supports and tie off. By wrapping from one post to the next and back, you double the available space to hang without increasing the space used. When you hang your clothing to dry, put them on a hanger first—this helps prevents wrinkles, eliminates the need for clothespins, and makes it a one step operation from dry to closet. We’ve also used the same line to apply a bug spray to clothing we intend to wear in high mosquito areas with malaria using a chemical like Permanon Repel. By hanging it outdoors, we save our lungs and keep the amount of chemical used to a minimum a truly eco-friendly thing to do.

Recycle Your Dryer Lint [see photograph 4]

and Be an Eco-Friend to Birds [see photograph 5]

Cleaning your dryer lint holder after every dry will ensure your dryer is working at peak efficiency, an environmentally green thing to do. The lint need not go to waste. Simply buy a suet feeder box, fill with your left over lint, and hang it outside. In spring time, when the birds are nesting, you will find them showing up for little bits of lint to line their nests. The birds in our neighborhood chew us out if we don’t have plenty of lint and some food for them. It makes us feel eco-friendly and loved.